THEE RANT

Sunday, August 30, 2009

A career criminal admitted gunning down a Bronx livery-cab driver in cold blood but claimed the slaying was in revenge for a botched drug deal, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Benny Delgado, 31, a paroled thug with a long rap sheet, told cops that he blasted cabbie Jose Peña-Segura, 42, because the hack's friend stole pills from one of his pals.

"We weren't able to find Jose's associate so we went after [Peña-Segura]," Delgado said, according to a statement read at his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court yesterday.

Delgado, who has more than 20 arrests on his record, also confessed to shooting a Bronx drug dealer two days earlier in a fight over heroin, cops said.

In a one-man crime spree, Delgado robbed and shot Peña-Segura, a father of four, in the head on Sunday night after hailing his cab near St. Mary's Park in Mott Haven and telling him to go to a fake address, said prosecutors.

The cab hit two parked cars after the shooting, and Delgado fled the scene, said prosecutors.

Cops picked up Delgado in the park shortly afterward and found the .25-caliber gun tied to the crime.

Two other men were seen running from the scene of the killing, but no other arrests have been made, authorities said.

Delgado was arraigned and held without bail on first-degree murder and gun possession charges yesterday.

While being quizzed about the cabbie shooting, Delgado also confessed to shooting another Bronx man, John Latigua, also over drugs, two days earlier.

Delgado told cops that last Thursday, he went to pick up heroin on E. 146th St. from Latigua, and things got nasty, with Latigua nearly mowing him down during a drive-by shooting.

Delgado said he returned Friday for 25 bags of heroin and a healthy dose of payback, according to court documents.

"[Latigua] said he didn't give a f--- about us dope fiends," Delgado allegedly told prosecutors, according to a statement read during the arraignment. "I then took out my gun and shot him in the chest."

Latigua is in critical condition, awaiting surgery to repair a punctured lung.

Delgado was arraigned on attempted murder and weapons possession charges for that crime.

The thug was released from prison two years ago after serving a 12-year sentence on an attempted murder conviction.

Peña-Segura was the second livery-cab driver killed in a week in the Bronx.